hair fun!

Crumble Froo

alright, im sitting here stinking of bleach with a towel around my shoulders, praying the peroxide doesnt find it's way into my nape... and as i was sat there in the middle of the kitchen, my boyfriend pulling, twisting and generally abusing my hair (took me a while to remember he was actually capable of being gentle...), i wondered what ye had to say about it.

how many of ye dye your hair?
do you stick to your natural colour for grey coverage, or funk it up a bit?
is grey coverage anything to do with dying your hair?
how long have you been doing it, and what kind of colours have ye gone with over the years?
do you go to a hairdresser, a trainee (free) hairdresser, get it done at home with a mate, or by yourself?
do you bleach first?
does your colour last? if so how?!

alright, that's me done. i was just curious mostly, i dye mine for grey coverage mostly, but also i just enjoy screwing around iwth the colour, usually blacks, purples and maroons, though am aiming for bright red now. should be... emm... interesting.

Blush_01

I've been dying my hair on and off since I was 11. I started with plums, then moved on to dark reds, gradually progressing up to magenta and pink (although they were a lot of maintenance work) with a brief period of brown with blonde highlights in there somewhere - although that didn't last long! There was an awkward tomato soup phase in the summer before I started college - the bleach from the magenta and pink made the subsequent red I put in fade very quickly, I spent a lot of time in the sun that summer, and I didn't want to dye my hair too much in case I destroyed it. I dyed it a few weeks into college to my natural colour (light/mid brown) and then just let the dye grow out. In third year a friend's sister needed a cut and colour model, so I got a few different browns put in my hair. Grew them all out again then. Dyed my hair while doing my thesis this year - anything to avoid work! - and dyed the roots in November for a wedding, quite close to my natural colour, just added a bit of depth.

I'm sure I must have grey hair somewhere, but I've never even found one while I had my natural colour. My little sister found her first grey at 13. I'm 23. I normally dye my own hair. I've only had someone else do it when I got the highlights, on one occasion around my 18th birthday as a treat, and when I was Cherry's model. I don't get how other people need someone to help them dye their hair at home, but then again, I've been doing it on my own for more than half my life.

In total, I've gone from brown to bright orange and back again, via plum, dark red and pink. It's been an adventure!

The only time I bleached first was when I started to use the magenta dye. It lasted for two washes before fading a lot, so I was re-dying nearly twice a week, which I was afraid would destroy my hair, even though the dyes were semi-permanent (for some reason they don't make bright colours in a permanent dye).

The last time I was getting my hair done, I was talking to the hairdresser who blow-dried my hair about making vibrant colours last longer, and she said that they add salt to the dye to make it more vibrant and last longer before they apply it, when they use the brighter colours like pinks and reds on their own hair.

Just remember with red hair colour, it'll fade quite rapidly. You may need to dye again within a few weeks for the sake of vibrancy. Red tones need to build up in your hair to remain vivid, and fadelike nobody's business by comparison to blue tones.

Enjoy it!

echosound

I've been dying my hair since I was about 14, so that's 15 years I've been dying my hair at this stage.

Initially it was jut purely to change the colour, have a bit of fun with it, but now it's moreso for grey coverage (most of the women in my family go grey early unfortunately).
I don't think I've ever gotten the colour done by a hairdresser since I was about 18 - had a bad experience where the hairdresser was reapplying streaks and managed to make my hair all break off due to the overlap of bleaching.

So far, the only colours I haven't dyed my hair are bright blonde and green, I've been every other colour from natural style browns/reds/blacks/dark blonde to bright rainbow colours like red/blue/pink/mandarin/violet you name it, I've had it. I was known for many a year as the girl with the purple and red hair.

As I've got naturally dark brown hair, I had to bleach it first for the brighter colours like pillarbox red and purple, and always did it myself after that horrible experience with the hairdresser.

ATM my hair is a pretty boring chestnut brown (my natural colour, but dyed to cover greys) with some auburn/dark blonde highlights as the upkeep was getting too annoying for the continuous bleaching and dying purple and red - my hair is now halfway down my back and it's just too much hair to be dying, it was grand when I had short styles or it even when it was down just past my shoulders, it's just too much hassle now with it so long.
Having said that, even though the colour is a lot more boring than I'm used to, I've never had so many compliments on my hair as I have in recent months, so I'll probably stick with the chestnut&highlights until I get another notion and go back to red and purple.

I still don't go to the hairdressers, I dye it myself and put in the highlights myself. In fact, I've been to the hairdressers twice in the last ten years, I normally get my husband to cut my hair as he's a dab hand and creative too, and I do the dyeing.

Have to say I do enjoy when people compliment me on my hair and ask me where did I get it done and I tell them I do it myself - they're usually skeptical as it doesn't look like a home job, after years of practice I've gotten pretty handy and can do highlights and dye jobs as good as any hairdresser

So tell us - how did the hair turn out in the end? You sorted?

Will

its gonna be bright red so its a win in my books!

Lil' Smiler

I began dying my hair when I was around 14, I thought it was cool, alot of my friends were doing it too so obviously I followed the trend. I really wish I hadn't though.

I'd dye it the kinda reddy/brown colour or at one stage i think it might have been kinda black/purple &shudders*

SO then I grew up a bit and let the colour grow out and stayed my natural kinda mousey brown and then got highlights when I was about 16 but they were a bit extreme now that I look back at it. My mums friend used to do them for me but basically my whole head was this yellowy colour...

So I had them up until just before I turned 20. I ended up breaking up with my long term bf and decided I wanted to be a new me... independent woman all that stuff you do when you break up! So I got rid of the blonde and went brunette again.

So...then in October I felt a little bored of the brown and got some very subtle caramelly highlights. Decided to fork out what it cost and get some proper ones done in Peter Marks (as opposed to my mums friend which was €25, cut & colour!!).

Was terrified getting it done and emphasised how i wanted subtle. I was delighted with the end product...need to get them done again now! Might go a little more blonde too

Looking forward to it!! Yay!!!

I don't trust the chemicals in hair dye.

I don't have an inclination to dye anyway, as I feel my hair colour is part of my persona.

I like to think if it ever happens, that I'd go gray gracefully.

echosound

Would you be happy if you started going grey at, say, 16 though? I know a few people who did, and who were completely grey by age 20, and I've got quite a few bits of grey myself at 29, runs in the family. Would you be happy to go grey gracefully in your teens or twenties? Just curious.

Dizzyblonde

I've been blonde since I was 15 and started as a trainee hairdresser, and have been colouring my hair since. I started out with highlights, and now I get a soft blonde tint with warmer lowlights and some brighter highlights - all for the price of the tubes of colour, thanks to my hairdresser daughter!!
I'm in my 40s, have been going grey for years, and there's NO WAY I'm letting it shine through. It's very ageing and drab. Very few people go that lovely silver colour or have the complexion to suit it.

It depends on how it goes grey,my friend is a strawberry blonde and her gray is silver and it has sneaked in even highlights as opposed to in patchs. I love her hair. Obviously it doesn't look that good on everyone.
I feel that dyeing your hair turns it grey early.

Papillon87

Always thought I'd never dye my hair....mother said she'd disown me blah dee blah :rolleyes: ...did eventually just before I turned 19....blonde highlights... for about a year...really don't like it anymore so am growing it out...see the Fashion forum haha! Painful process. It looks good on some people, doesn't suit me so I'm going au naturelle again. As regards going grey as a teen, I can understand people dying their hair then for confidence reasons etc....I've never known anyone personally who's experienced this but I've heard it through the grapevine. I don't know what I'll do when I go grey...but hopefully it won't be for a long time as I've fairly light hair anyway.

monkeyfudge

Oh yes... I had an agreement with Narco that I'd also dye my hair... I may get on to that this evening.

It's not something I've ever done before... so it should prove to be interesting.

LivingDeadGirl

I've had semi permenant magenta and purple in my hair, they were great but dont last long at all as my hair needs a lot of conditioning. If I could get my hands on permenant purple dye and was feeling brave I'd dye it purple. Got highlights last year but they were quite unnoticable so am growing them out now. I'm naturally a dark blonde/light brown, which suits my very pale complexion.

spinandscribble

i started at 12 by dyeing the tips (about 2 inches or 3) my black hair, red. i soon was hooked. had streaks of blue, green, purple ect. i was never allowed to do a full head of one colour because my natural hair colour was strong and black so it would be terribly dry to bleach.

soon i needed to use a semi to make sure the bleached were blocked out as i returned to my natural. i loved the tints and now get a semi maybe every 2-4 months.

i had my best colour experience last year when i had a panel on each side of my head and underneath my fringe bleached then dyed red, then purple, the blue (which was lovely!) and finally green. what was lovely was my hair was straight and long and full so it looked great.

currently im mourning a bad hairdresser experience where half my hair was cut off, ergo mullet my hairs thin looking now and nasty. its amazing how a hairdresser can chop off half your hair to match your fringes length and leave the rest halfway down your back, when all you asked for was gradual layers.
i've decided to get a bodywave so i can ride this disaster out til my hair grows back.

i've noticed my natural hair is no longer naturally blue black; its a very dark brown/black.

i've toyed with the idea of going blonde. i have light eyebrows and eyes so i could pull it off (tried wigs ect) but my roots would be terrible!!!

i get the bleach done at the hairdressers by whoevers there and would get the colour then but i'd top it up myself at home.

Gauge

I was big into dying my hair different colours when I left secondary school... used to go through one bottle, then when it was finished go onto another. Got some amazing results by mixing and matching colours, some results weren't so amazing... it was a bit of a pain because I'd have to redye my hair every two weeks.

I'm trying to grow it out now (it was very short) and it's a pain in the ass

charba

how many of ye dye your hair?
yes I have been dying it on and off since I was 16.

do you stick to your natural colour for grey coverage, or funk it up a bit?

I stick to colours close to my own hair colour. At the minute it is mahognony
colour. Its been plum, brown with blonde streaks. My natural hair colour is a dark brown coour.

is grey coverage anything to do with dying your hair?
No I just dye it to make it more manageable, which may sound daft however when its not dyed its much more difficult to maintain.

do you go to a hairdresser, a trainee (free) hairdresser, get it done at home with a mate, or by yourself?

I'd never try it myself. Always get it done in the hairdressers. At home its 50 euro which is a steal, in dublin I pay about 70euro

do you bleach first? nope

does your colour last? if so how?! semi permanant so about 1 month.

bluedolphin

Once upon a time on a very wet, boring miserable July afternoon, my friend and I decided it'd be a fun way of passing the time by doing some 'home highlights' in my hair. Four hours later, my locks were not too far off an orangey-yellow. My friend had misinterpreted the word 'highlights' and did 'all-over colour' instead.

It's funny now looking back.

Actually it was funny at the time too, tbh. :rolleyes:

Anyhow, since then I usually let my darling hairdresser (Emma, if you're out there, you're the best!) take care of my tresses, which she does so quite fabulously. Usually only get highlights or something like that, not one for all-over jobs, especially since the home disaster!

Crumble Froo

oh man. never, ever, ever again am i letting my fella at my hair again EVER.

he's lucky i wasnt too fussed about the bleach bit, i just know the red wouldnt have come out if my hair was still brown. well, there's a fair few pieces that are still brown. and my roots are... em... white. literally, there is an inch and a half of white, then my left side is relatively well done at the front, quite white/blone, with a hint of albinism behind the ear, the right is a lot less well done, quite patchy.

mostly im just ginger now. thankyou b/f. anywho, the red should top it over, i hope. ha, and if all else fails... well, 1. im in new zealand , i dont actually know anyone here anyway, and 2. i have black dye.

though this thread has brought my attention to the fact that ive never had blue hair before. this must be remedied, methinks... but not until i have a girly capable of doing the backs of my hair... i can usually handle ok with dye, but i find the bleach a bit awkward to get through.

though this red is actually a permanant one, found it in bulgaria, regular enough brand, quite a bright red, and only cost the equivalent of about 3euros.

anywho... here's a pic of me this morning. i reckon ill do the red soon enough, though wana give my hair a chance of recovery in case i have to do two lots of dye. mmm... kinda looknig forward to seenig it black again actually.




also, the greatest colour i ever found was, i think loreal, but it was called 'chocolate cherry'... it was this amazing purple/black-ish colour that i have never been able to find again.

monkeyfudge

I think the colour I got is loreal as well... the box makes some serious promises.

Blush_01

Narco, I wouldn't worry about it. The lighter bits are where your natural growth was, the orangy bits are where the most of the old dye you had in your hair was. From the photo, it's not too bad. When you dye it (don't forget the salt ) it should all look pretty even. At least, the same thing happened to me in the past and I never noticed a difference between the orange and the luminous white parts when they were dyed over.

Post "after" pics of the hair!

Crumble Froo

absolutely scarlet walking around with my orangey mop of hair today... completely forgot i'd bleached it till i walked into my fella's sister's house, and she just said 'oh, my GOD! what'd you do?!'... i found a hat quicksharp after that.

oh, im hoping the dark and light bits will be visible, gotta love a bit of texture. i've done the bleach thing a couple of times before, so im not too worried, although... emm... haha, the plot has thickened.

i might have mentioned that i got the red initially for a friend. was in bulgaria and noticed that the hair dye was dirt cheap, so i picked up about 10 packets of different colours, from blue/black, to maroon, to plum, to black to the red ones for my mate... and... em... decided the best way to store/transport them was by taking them all out of the boxes, nad ****ing them into a plastic bag together.

em.... i have no idea which ones the red ones are.

if anyone wants to wish me luck with my lucky dip, please feel free... i think im gonna get pished tonight, and do it some time tomorrow. oh dear.


edit: how does the salt into dye thing work? how much should i put in? table salt, or sea salt?

monkeyfudge

Mix them all together and see what happens...

I don't want to get your hopes up... but I reckon the results will be totally awesome.

Anyway... if you don't succeed there's always Naboo's Miracle Wax to consider using.

Crumble Froo

aww, you're sweet, but i know you're just waxing lyrical.

i kinda suddenly wanna, not so much mix them all together, but to put one colour in one half and another in the otehr.

im not going to.

but im thinking about it.

a lot.

Dizzyblonde

Narco, is there any way you can go to a salon to have this fixed? If not, use a strong darkish colour so it will hopefully get as even coverage as possible,. Also, use a colour you have a couple of packets of, as it will fade quickly where your hair is palest (especially now you're in glorious sunshine). I'm sorry I don't know anything about adding salt, but you could always chuck in a bit since it works on fabric dyes!

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

echosound

Ah there's no need to go to a salon to fix it, sure she'll be throwing the red dye in over it and it'll all look grand then. Narco, I don't think I ever waited between bleaching and putting in the colour over it, certainly not for a day or two anyway, but the coloured dyes I used were from a salon so they had the effect of conditioning the bleached hair when I put them in over it.
Put it in ASAP and it'll be all hunky dory. If the red dye is any good, it should all go on evenly enough and as you said the tones should work nicely. Always did with me anyway.
The white bits/orange bits is just that the orange part is obviously where you had dye in previously, and the white bits is your natural undyed hair taking the bleach better than the dyed hair.

If the bottles the dyes are in are in transparent containers, bring them outside and hold up to the light, you should be able to see the various tints of the colours then with sunlight streaming through them, and deduce which one is the red. Post a pic when you're done too

Must dye my own hair tonight. Roots are starting to show through, might throw some bleach in in streaks as I could do with a few more highlights methinks.

Quality

I refuse to dye my own hair anymore after I ruined my satin bed sheets....

I now go to the hairdresser and relax drinking coffee, reading magazines and having a good natter. Then I come out feeling relaxed rather than stressed.

Crumble Froo

echosound wrote: »

Ah there's no need to go to a salon to fix it, sure she'll be throwing the red dye in over it and it'll all look grand then. Narco, I don't think I ever waited between bleaching and putting in the colour over it, certainly not for a day or two anyway, but the coloured dyes I used were from a salon so they had the effect of conditioning the bleached hair when I put them in over it.
Put it in ASAP and it'll be all hunky dory. If the red dye is any good, it should all go on evenly enough and as you said the tones should work nicely. Always did with me anyway.
The white bits/orange bits is just that the orange part is obviously where you had dye in previously, and the white bits is your natural undyed hair taking the bleach better than the dyed hair.

If the bottles the dyes are in are in transparent containers, bring them outside and hold up to the light, you should be able to see the various tints of the colours then with sunlight streaming through them, and deduce which one is the red. Post a pic when you're done too

Must dye my own hair tonight. Roots are starting to show through, might throw some bleach in in streaks as I could do with a few more highlights methinks.

lol, not a ****ing chance am i going to a ****ing salon. i barely have money to keep ****ing drinking, let alone paying **** knows how many dollars for some ****ing idiot to play with my ****ing hair. any colour i pick out of the bag, i know i chose with me in mind in the first place, so im raelly not worried. plus the fact i keep startling myslef when i see the fairness in mirrors, t'won't be long before i put some darker dye in, dont worry. though... if i go red, i think ill wait till im out in town, so it gets one day wear at least. mostly, the heat here is too much for me, and i close the blinds, and hide indoors.

as for 'dye in previously'.. my hair hasnt been a natural colour for about 5 years, so im not too worried about that. an ex of one of my mates was a hairdresser for about 5 years, and i eventually let her at my hair one day, and even she couldnt believe how many layers of colour there was... haha, fun times..we eventually just threw the violet in my hair an dit looked amazing for a week or so... though im defo trying htis salt thing for a few sessions.

emm... apologies for the rambling... may be a wee bit drunk faoi lathair.

monkeyfudge

Yay.... the drunken posting begins... this is always fun.

Kiya

oh mi god, ur mental.
but seriously good luck with the red.

i went red last xmas after being peroxide blonde for years...
oh my god. it was the worst mistake ever.

nobody told me the f***n colour would run.

i had it done "professionally" and the gits never told me that it would run out of blonde hair every time it rained on me!!
i went to my xmas party, stayed in a hotel, had a shower, left red dye everywhere, housekeeping thought id bloody murdered someone! red on sheets, towels, carpet!! aaaaagggh

seriously, do you lot remember how wet it was last xmas???:eek:

so i said adios to my brand new cream coat (now with fab streaks of reddy orange dye) and aloha to 2 months of dodgy dying to get my hair back to a "normalish" colour..

Crumble Froo

it's the middle of summer here, and i can barely stand the ****ing heat!

im not overly fussed tbh. it's only hair, and it's only me, so it's really nothing important. *if* i get it right first time, and get my hair nice and bright red, the absolute worst that can happen is i dont like it (which shouldnt be too hard, as red is usually a colour of confidence, and i feel anything but in most company over here... ) and i dye it black/dark purple/dark red.

i got it done professinoally the first time. disaster. waste of money. **** that ****.

second time i did it myself... it was ****ing awesome. and ive never been peroxide blonde (though maybe one day for halloween. im serioulsy considering chopping it short and doing the peroxide thing if i get to go to boosh in september...), but now, my hair is light enough for the red to show, and if i put another colour in... well, that'll show pretty damned well with the blonde-ishness that's in at the mo too.

apologies if i went on a bit htere... as monkeyfudge pionted out... im not entirely sober...

monkeyfudge

narco wrote: »

im not overly fussed tbh. it's only hair, and it's only me, so it's really nothing important.

Now. Now. You're very important to a lot of people. ESPECIALLY your hair.

Crumble Froo

... im howard in this scenario.

not vince.


i repeat. i am NOT christ.